Improvement in piano sounding-boards



F. w. NIEHAUS.

Piano Sounding-Boards.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRIEDRICH IVILIIIAM NIEHAUS, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

IMPROVEMENT IN PIANO SCUNDlNG-BOARDS.

Specilication forming part ot' Letters Patent No. 15Q,l59, dated June 1G, i874; application filed April 20,1874.

Be it known that I, F. \V. NIEHAUS, of St. Louis, in the county ot St. Louis and State ot' Missouri, have invented certain new and use- 'iul Improvements in Sounding-Boards for .Pianos; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters ot' reference marked thereon, which form part ot' this specitica-tion.

My invention relates to soumling-boards for pianos or other stringed instruments having two or more bridges; and it consists in eonnecting' the bridges by means of an equal number ot' counter-bridges on the under side ot' the sounding board, as will be hereinafter more fully set forth.

In order to enable others skilled in the art to which my invention appertains to make and use the same, I will now proceed to describe its construction and operation, referring to the annexed drawing, in which- Figure l is a plan viewot the ordinary plate and soi'inding-board en'ibodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal 'section et' the same through the line .r a', Fig. l.

A represents the ordinary plate, to which the sounding-board B is connected. O, I), and E represent three bridges, arranged, substantially as shown, on theuppersideot the sounding-board. rIhese bridges are connected by means of eorrespondin g counter-bridges C, D', and E on the under side of the soundingboard. By this means a strong, full, sweet, and harmonious tone is obtained.

In experimenting with soumling-boards, I found that-neither two nor three bridges would give that sweet and harmonious tone so desirable in pianos and other similar instruments 5 but by connecting these bridges by corresponding counter-bridges the desired result was obtained. rlhe tones are all harmonious, not a single harsh or discordant tone being in the piano.

Haring thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In combination with asound-board provided with two or more string-bridges, brace or counter bridges arranged upon the opposite side ot' the sound-board, and continuous in extent with said string-bridges, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own .I at'lx my signature in presence ot' two witnesses.

FRIEDRICH I M. NIEHAUS.

Witnesses:

GEORGE SonLorsTErN, J oHN M. BAUER. 

